Rediscovering Delmarva’s Inland Dunes: A Lost Habitat Brought to Life

  • A garden with various green plants, a cactus with yellow flowers, a weathered piece of driftwood, and mulch ground cover.

    Explore a reimagined glacial ecosystem, where native plants, fire ecology, and education converge

RE-NATU-RING Principles Applied

Inland Dunes Habitat

  • The design restores relationships between:

    • native plants and pollinators

    • host plants and the endangered frosted elfin butterfly

    • fire and ecological succession

    • plants and wildlife

    • people and the lost inland dune ecosystem

  • The project is deeply rooted in a unique regional landscape.

    Rather than creating a generic native garden, it recreates one of Delmarva's rarest ecosystems by drawing inspiration from Pocomoke State Forest and other inland dune remnants. The planting design, topography, materials, and educational interpretation are all specific to this place.

  • The project allows natural ecological processes to become the design.

    Instead of forcing nature into an ornamental composition, the design celebrates:

    • fire ecology

    • succession

    • natural plant associations

    • varying vegetation density

    • self-sustaining native plant communities

  • Remnant reference habitat in Pocomoke State Forest

    Remnant reference habitat in Pocomoke State Forest

  • Lupine is a critical species to the inland dunes and host plant to the endangered frosted elfin butterfly

    Lupine is a critical species to the inland dunes and host plant to the endangered frosted elfin butterfly

  • Preparing the dune for planting day

    Preparing the dune for planting day

  • DBG volunteers planting the dunes

    DBG volunteers planting the dunes

  • Prickly pear after planting

    Prickly pear after planting

  • Prickly pear in bloom

    Prickly pear in bloom

  • Prickly pear with fruit

    Prickly pear with fruit

  • ransition zone between dune and meadow

    Transition zone between dune and meadow

  • Dune habitat with Vaccinium and Quercus falcata

    Dune habitat with Vaccinium and Quercus falcata

  • The native prickly pear thriving in the inland dunes

    The native prickly pear thriving in the inland dunes